Industrial process control and automation systems are routinely used to automate large and complex industrial processes. Distributed process control and automation systems are routinely arranged in different “levels.” For example, controllers in lower levels are often used to receive measurements from sensors and generate control signals for actuators. Controllers in higher levels are often used to support higher-level functions, such as scheduling, planning, and optimization operations.
In a distributed control system, devices on certain levels are often connected to associated communication networks using special hardware interfaces. Because of such tight couplings with the hardware interfaces, these devices often cannot be virtualized, which may be needed or desired for older legacy devices or other types of devices.